Mr Paterson was the managing director of a leather company before entering politics.

A keen rider, Mr Paterson and his wife Rose completed the Mongol Derby last year. The couple covered 621 miles in ten days, raising money for charity while following in the footsteps of Genghis Khan across Mongolia.

Mr Paterson, who replaces Caroline Spelman, was educated at Radley, before reading History at Oxford.

As the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for the last two years, Mr Paterson tried to unite the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Conservatives.

Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers criticised Mr Paterson after a speech on the Stormont Executive in July.

Martin McGuinness called the speech “clumsy,” while Peter Robinson said it was “ill-advised”.

In May, Mr Paterson became the most senior government minister to declare his opposition to Mr Cameron's plan to legalise gay marriage. Mr Paterson said he supported the government’s commitment to allow civil partnership ceremonies for same sex-couples to be held in churches, but he warned that after “careful” consideration, he would not be able to support extending full civil marriage rights to homosexual couples.